A Brazilian defender, one of the great icons of Brazilian soccer history, who played six seasons in the North American Soccer League and won four NASL titles.

Carlos Alberto, who played under a nickname, and whose full name is Carlos Alberto Torres, was captain of the Brazil team that won the World Cup in 1970 and is rated by some as the greatest team in the history of soccer. That was Carlos Alberto’s only World Cup, and he was well under 30 when he retired from the Brazilian national team. He was only 33 when he joined his former Brazil and Santos teammate Pele with the New York Cosmos in the middle of the 1977 season.

With Carlos Alberto and Franz Beckenbauer in the lineup, the Cosmos became the first soccer team anywhere in the world to feature the captains of the previous two World Cup-winning teams. Beckenbauer had been captain of West Germany in 1974. Prior to the addition of Carlos Alberto, the Cosmos had been struggling in that 1977 season, but his arrival proved a turning point.

Carlos Alberto played a total of 145 NASL games, and scored eight goals. He was with the Cosmos from 1977 to 1980, playing in their NASL champion teams in 1977, 1978 and 1980. After playing for the California Surf in the 1981 NASL season, he returned to the Cosmos in 1982 and won another NASL title. He was an NASL all-star five times, including first-team selections in 1978, 1979 and 1980.

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Founded in 1993 by American soccer historian Sam T.N. Foulds, the Society for American Soccer History (SASH) works to promote, facilitate, and disseminate research into the rich history of soccer in the United States.